Staying on a diet plan long enough to achieve and maintain
results can be challenging for even the most disciplined people. Dieting
often requires giving up your favorite foods, changing your habits, and
spending additional time and money on preparing healthier meals.
Despite all the claims out there that you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight, deep down inside we all know that our diets are important for both our health and the appearance of our bodies. Even if you do lose weight without "dieting," you're going to need to keep your eating habits in check if you want to maintain a healthy body for a lifetime.
But when you know how to work with your psychology rather than against it, you'll realize eating better doesn't have to be any harder than eating the typical "see food" diet (if you see it, you eat it).
The strategies you're about to learn are some of the same ones I've used to change my eating habits from fast food meals every single night to a healthy eating lifestyle. Not only that, but I've kept it up for 9 years straight and so can you. It just takes doing things a little differently than most people!
Strategy 1: Change How You Approach Diets
The first idea to get out of your head that you are "going on" a diet. You're already on a diet! While not everyone follows a specific diet "plan," everyone does have their dietary habits they've developed over the years.
Sometimes people just go on a diet, get results, and then come off a diet and lose everything they worked for. This doesn't make much sense to me!
If you can change your focus to your habits, then the changes you make will stick over the long haul. If you focus on gradually adjusting the way you naturally eat, eating well will become second nature. The way to do this is to only take on a few changes at a time.
For one month, find only one aspect of your diet you'd like to change. For example, you could be reduce or cut out all sugary soft drinks and replace them with water.
Since you only have to focus on making one change, you'll more than likely have the willpower to succeed. After a month or two when drinking water becomes your new habit, you can go on to something else. But that one change over the course of a year is enough for many people to start dropping excess weight and improve their health dramatically!
Strategy 2 - Find Your "Whys"
The key to getting and staying motivated is to know why you're doing what you're doing. So ask yourself, "why do I want to diet in the first place?"
For many people it's to get in better shape, and also sometimes for better health and more energy. But even if you know your reason is to get in better shape, have you considered why you want to get in better shape?
Keep asking yourself "why?" for any reason you give, and see if you can find the deepest reasons compelling you to change your diet. Perhaps it's more freedom to do the things you enjoy in life, or feeling more secure in knowing you'll live longer to provide for your family, or enjoying the fact that you can wear your favorite designer clothes.
Whatever your reasons, there's always a deeper reason "why" you want those things. The further you can dig down, the more you get to the "core" reasons that drive what you're doing.
Then, whenever you're faced with a temptation, remind yourself of your motivations.
Let's say you're deciding whether or not to eat a dessert that would usually be too much to resist. You can state. "I choose to eat an apple instead of this dessert because... " and then insert your reasons for dieting following the word "because." This keeps you constantly focused on why you're making these changes.
Strategy 3 - Focus On The Process Rather Than The Outcome
People are more happy when they enjoy what they do rather than just do things for a particular outcome. While it may seem hard to believe, you can train yourself to enjoy dieting for its own sake rather than just seeing it as a means to an end.
If you can find what is inherently good about eating better, you'll be more likely to eat better each day regardless of any goal you have in mind.
A great way to do this is to always be educating yourself about the various benefits of healthy whole foods, and even the consequences of eating junk food.
Another way to accomplish this is to learn healthy recipes you enjoy. If you always have new and exciting recipes to look forward to trying, this makes the process of dieting something that can be enjoyed rather than dreaded.
Eventually, you'll start to appreciate eating a better diet for its own sake regardless of any "side effects" like weight loss and better health!
These three strategies are excellent starting points for getting and staying motivated for any diet plan you wish to follow.
Despite all the claims out there that you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight, deep down inside we all know that our diets are important for both our health and the appearance of our bodies. Even if you do lose weight without "dieting," you're going to need to keep your eating habits in check if you want to maintain a healthy body for a lifetime.
But when you know how to work with your psychology rather than against it, you'll realize eating better doesn't have to be any harder than eating the typical "see food" diet (if you see it, you eat it).
The strategies you're about to learn are some of the same ones I've used to change my eating habits from fast food meals every single night to a healthy eating lifestyle. Not only that, but I've kept it up for 9 years straight and so can you. It just takes doing things a little differently than most people!
Strategy 1: Change How You Approach Diets
The first idea to get out of your head that you are "going on" a diet. You're already on a diet! While not everyone follows a specific diet "plan," everyone does have their dietary habits they've developed over the years.
Sometimes people just go on a diet, get results, and then come off a diet and lose everything they worked for. This doesn't make much sense to me!
If you can change your focus to your habits, then the changes you make will stick over the long haul. If you focus on gradually adjusting the way you naturally eat, eating well will become second nature. The way to do this is to only take on a few changes at a time.
For one month, find only one aspect of your diet you'd like to change. For example, you could be reduce or cut out all sugary soft drinks and replace them with water.
Since you only have to focus on making one change, you'll more than likely have the willpower to succeed. After a month or two when drinking water becomes your new habit, you can go on to something else. But that one change over the course of a year is enough for many people to start dropping excess weight and improve their health dramatically!
Strategy 2 - Find Your "Whys"
The key to getting and staying motivated is to know why you're doing what you're doing. So ask yourself, "why do I want to diet in the first place?"
For many people it's to get in better shape, and also sometimes for better health and more energy. But even if you know your reason is to get in better shape, have you considered why you want to get in better shape?
Keep asking yourself "why?" for any reason you give, and see if you can find the deepest reasons compelling you to change your diet. Perhaps it's more freedom to do the things you enjoy in life, or feeling more secure in knowing you'll live longer to provide for your family, or enjoying the fact that you can wear your favorite designer clothes.
Whatever your reasons, there's always a deeper reason "why" you want those things. The further you can dig down, the more you get to the "core" reasons that drive what you're doing.
Then, whenever you're faced with a temptation, remind yourself of your motivations.
Let's say you're deciding whether or not to eat a dessert that would usually be too much to resist. You can state. "I choose to eat an apple instead of this dessert because... " and then insert your reasons for dieting following the word "because." This keeps you constantly focused on why you're making these changes.
Strategy 3 - Focus On The Process Rather Than The Outcome
People are more happy when they enjoy what they do rather than just do things for a particular outcome. While it may seem hard to believe, you can train yourself to enjoy dieting for its own sake rather than just seeing it as a means to an end.
If you can find what is inherently good about eating better, you'll be more likely to eat better each day regardless of any goal you have in mind.
A great way to do this is to always be educating yourself about the various benefits of healthy whole foods, and even the consequences of eating junk food.
Another way to accomplish this is to learn healthy recipes you enjoy. If you always have new and exciting recipes to look forward to trying, this makes the process of dieting something that can be enjoyed rather than dreaded.
Eventually, you'll start to appreciate eating a better diet for its own sake regardless of any "side effects" like weight loss and better health!
These three strategies are excellent starting points for getting and staying motivated for any diet plan you wish to follow.
Derek Doepker offers motivational advice for healthy living and dieting through his book, How To Stick To a Diet, available for Amazon Kindle as well as his blog Excuse Proof Fitness.
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